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Sounds of Home

This week, Silicon Valley transported me back to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Hearing the pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the eavestroughs/gutters brings me back to Vancouver’s winter months of cloudy and rainy days. I am excited at the rain for once – for the nostalgia of life back in Vancouver, and for the drought in California. California desperately needs the rain and moisture now. It is the state’s driest year on record. (Aside: Canadians use the term ‘eavestrough’, whereas Americans refer this part of the roof as a ‘gutter’.)

Having my favourite Vancouver radio station streaming during the initial part of our move made it easier to transition into our new home in California. While listening to the news and sounds from my old home back in Canada, I was unpacking boxes in our new home in Silicon Valley.

Even though I fully embrace calling Silicon Valley home now, I still tune into these radio players. I was teased for listening to the radio and being outdated when there are many high tech Internet radio services available that let you customize your music playlist, and skip radio talk and sometimes even the commercials too.
• iTunes Radio
• Pandora Radio
• Spotify
• GrooveShark
These radio services are great, but on days where the sounds of raindrops aren’t around to remind me of Canada, streaming Canadian radio stations keeps me current on Canada’s events, popular news, gossip and trends.